‘TV-Magick’ series is both art and activism in the situation of post-revolution Ukraine. Shift from the street battles to foreign affairs leaved the citizens with no hope of direct impact on the process. This is similar to the situation of prehistoric societies, defenseless in front of nature. Turn to magic seems to be rational in this situation. If the aim is unattainable, you can try to manipulate with image of the aim.
Major works from the series are based on the record “Crimean speech” by Russian President Vladimir Putin. That speech was a point of no return that cynically determined all future events. For other works were used broadcasts from Russian TV.
Television as an object of art here is not only in the ‘mainstream’ tradition. This is the ironical interpretation of occult practices proposed by Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth.
‘Television is one of the most visible components of modern society. Its influence is both profound and inescapable. How strange, then, that modern-day writers on magick have almost universally ignored it in their discussions of contemporary magickal theory! The power of television exists and is being tapped by others, whether the magickian chooses to use it for herself or not. It seems that the latent potential of television in all forms of sorcery could be used to great effect for a variety of ritual, divinatory and symbolic mnemonic purposes. Like it or not, TELEVISION EXISTS. It is being used by the powers that be to influence the opinions, habits and actions of a great percentage of Earth’s population. The truly modern magickian/shaman ignores this force at her own peril’ (TELEVISION MAGICK, T.O.P.Y US, 1989).
He Distorted the Truth So Much that I Thought Some Distortion Can Help to Make Sense of His Words (2014)
The first video from the series “TV Magick” was created on 2014 March 18, the day of ‘Crimean speech’.
The name refers to pun with the word ‘Distortion’, used as the definition of ‘distortion’ of information and audio distortion effect, which among others was also used for sound editing. The record of “Crimean speech” was changed to create noise illustrations which can help to understand the real awful meaning of the speech.
While being a bit naive, this video is important as the first political message of series.
Two Kiselyovs (2014)
Videos from the side subseries of “TV-Magick” subtitled “A poor homage to Steve Reich.” It is based on phrase “Turn the USA into radioactive ashes”, repeated again and again with phasing.
It was spoken by russian propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov, presenter of Vesti nedeli (News of the Week), one of the most popular and influential Russian weekly news program on 2014 March 16. It claims the ability of Russia to destroy the USA with nuclear weapons.
For the video two methods of American composer Steve Reich were used. The first is a loop of human speech as in the pieces ‘It’s Gonna Rain’ (1965) and ‘Come Out’ (1966). However, phrase in “Two Kiselyovs” is not edited, but repeated on two tracks with phase shift, the main method of Steve Reich, used in ‘Piano Phase’ (1967) and other opuses.
The political purpose and opacity of form are intentional. Method of pure art is used in radically new circumstances.
Can Data Loss Rescue from Loss of Reason? (2014)
The second video in 2014 makes the diptych of processed “Crimean speech”. Video was rendered seven times in different formats with decreasing quality.
This is the most “magical” video of the series, its’ intention is quite simple – to try to resist the evilness of TV with witchcraft. Sympathetic Magic is trying to influence the source of “evil” through the manipulations on the video. Obviously, this attempt is unsuccessful.
The Sound of Crime Shall Never Fade out (2015)
This video was published for the first anniversary of “Crimean speech.” Attention is paid to its’ applause, for which were given so much space on the original record. The video was edited was edited to make every piece of applause repeat again and again till the end, creating the wall of noise.
Anonymous authority (2016)
Another edition of “Crimean speech” was published to mark the second anniversary. The video was procced through YouTube’s automatic algorithm of Face blurring, presented earlier this year. It’s important, that the algorithm does not effectively hide the identity of the participants.
Usually protestors are hiding faces when their actions are illegal or may be considered as illegal. To use the face blurring to protect identities during this crime seems also natural.
Miscellaneous (2014-)
This is not the only video of the Genesis P-Orridge Kolkhoz’s ‘TV Magick’ series. Some of them are semi-private experiments that do not require public attention. Among other works shall be mentioned illustrative “All Applause from Putin’s Speech” and some Coubs (mainly of spring 2014).
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